


Accidentally On Purpose

by ThirtySixSaveFiles



Category: Borderlands, Tales from the Borderlands - Fandom
Genre: Other, Post-Episode 5 TFTBL
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-01
Updated: 2016-08-01
Packaged: 2018-07-28 13:26:22
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,542
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7642354
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ThirtySixSaveFiles/pseuds/ThirtySixSaveFiles
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Fiona often comes to visit Rhys at the new Atlas facility, and sometimes she brings Zer0. This is fine. Rhys is <i>fine</i> - it's a crush, that's all.</p><p>He's <i>fine</i>.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Accidentally On Purpose

**Author's Note:**

> This was an Anon prompt fill from Tumblr that, once again, spiraled out of control. The original prompt was "Zerhys, falling asleep on each other."

Fiona comes to visit Rhys sometimes, out in the new Atlas facility. She updates him on her adventures and occasionally “borrows” some new piece of tech he’s working on.

“For field testing,” she says. “You want to know how this performs under stress, don’t you?”

Rhys always makes a perfunctory protest, but the truth is that he’s glad to do this for her; glad that she thinks enough of his work to trust it out in the wilds of Pandora. He doesn’t even mind that she never pays him for it - not in cash, anyway. Fiona brings him things more valuable than money.

Sometimes it’ll be rumours of a vault that they’ll puzzle over together. Sometimes it’s a piece - usually broken, but what can you expect - of what strongly looks like eridian technology. He’s got a special place in his lab set aside for those. One time she brought him a piece of a vault key - a  _ real  _ one - and although she wouldn’t tell him where she got it, he strongly suspects it came from the Vault of the Warrior.

He doesn’t mind at all that he missed that trip. Rhys is still trying to shake off the echoes of Handsome Jack, and to stand in the place that he died, in a place charged with eridium -

Rhys likes the risks he takes to be calculated, these days, and that just doesn’t seem like a risk worth taking.

Sometimes the presents Fiona brings him are people. Sometimes Vaughn comes with her, bringing news about how the Children of Helios are doing - some days it feels like two steps forward, one step back he says. Sometimes Fiona brings Sasha, who is just as excited as her sister about the things he’s working on (especially the guns). Sasha and August are - tentatively, provisionally - making things work. The patrons at the Purple Skag are as scummy as ever, she says cheerfully, but ever since she put a hole in one of them - “only his leg! He couldn’t pay his tab if I killed him” - they’ve been a lot more respectful. She sounds like she’s happy, and Rhys is happy for her.

Sometimes the person Fiona brings is Zer0.

Rhys had nearly hit his head on a low-hanging pipe the first time the tall armored figure had followed Fiona into his workshop. Zer0 had flashed him a friendly “:)” before leaning silently against one of the tables. Rhys can’t remember anything about his conversation with Fiona that day, but he remembers vividly the “;)” Zer0 had given him as they followed Fiona out after she had fleeced him for all he was - ahem, picked up some new prototypes.

Zer0 starts coming by with Fiona more and more often. Rhys can’t figure out why; it can’t be his scintillating conversation, because Rhys seems to lose his higher brain functions when the vault hunter is around unless he’s concentrating on a technical problem. Rhys had agonized for days over the way he had confidently explained the new scoping mechanism he had made for Zer0, and then looked up into that reflective helmet and seen the “:D” hovering there, and finished “...and that’s why it’s always good to, uh. Aim at things.”

“ _ Good advice. I aim /_  
_ Carefully, and I always /  
_ _ Hit what I aim for." _

And then the “:D” had changed to a “;)” and Rhys had nearly dropped the scope on his foot.

The “LOL” still haunts Rhys’ dreams.

Anyway.

So Zer0 comes by with Fiona, and then one day Zer0 comes by  _ without _ Fiona, and this is fine, Rhys doesn’t have a problem, Rhys is  _ fine _ , it’s just that his fingers lose their dexterity when Zer0 leans over his shoulder and Rhys almost drops his blowtorch and nearly sets the lab on fire.

It’s fine. It’s  _ fine _ . Zer0 probably thinks that - actually, Rhys doesn’t want to think about what Zer0 thinks of him. He’s fine admiring the vault hunter from afar - or from up close, that’s nice too. It doesn’t have to be anything more than that. It  _ won’t _ be anything more than that, Rhys reminds himself, because Zer0 is - is  _ cool _ , in a way that Rhys has always aspired to but never quite managed, and is probably just coming around for the free upgrades.

It doesn’t  _ quite _ explain why Zer0 will sometimes hang around for hours, just watching Rhys work, but the life of a vault hunter can’t be sword fights and explosions all the time, Rhys supposes. Maybe Zer0 enjoys the quiet interludes.

Rhys does. More than he should.

He’s nonetheless surprised when he looks up one day from a complex bit of wiring to find Zer0 clearly asleep, slumped in a chair with their feet on one of Rhys’ workbenches and head tipped forward. There are even little “zzz”s floating periodically in front of the helmet. Rhys isn’t quite sure what to do - does he wake Zer0 up? Does he let them sleep? He settles on the latter, flattered and pleased that Zer0 considers his lab a safe enough space - that they consider  _ Rhys _ safe enough - to catch a nap. Rhys realizes that he doesn’t know if Zer0 has a place they call home, or where they sleep when they need to, however often that is.

One time Rhys is wrapped up in the coding for an experimental shield when he hears Zer0 come in. (And he’s not thinking too hard about that, the way he can identify Zer0’s almost silent footsteps even in the midst of a coding project.) He waves vaguely at the workbench opposite him, and mutters something about food in the fridge if Zer0’s hungry (he’s never seen Zer0 eat, but he always offers), and is jolted out of what Vaughn always called his coding-coma when he feels a warm weight settle on his side.

He looks over, and Zer0 is sitting on the workbench next to him, back to the table and legs propped up on a chair. Zer0 flashes him a “:)” and then folds their arms and tips their head down, apparently settling in for a nap. Sure enough, the movement of their chest slows and a few minutes later a faint “zzz” flickers into existence above the helmet.

O-kay. This is fine. Rhys is just going to...get back to work.

It’s actually surprisingly easy to get back into the flow of things; even when Zer0’s head tips over and lands on Rhys’ shoulder, Rhys just braces his arm more firmly on the workbench and gets back to coding. It’s late into his night-cycle when he finally finishes, and as he hits “compile” he thinks that he’ll just close his eyes and breathe for a minute…

He’s not sure how much later it is when he wakes up, but when he does - oh  _ god _ , he fell asleep on Zer0 _ ,  _ his head is resting on their helmet, and he’s got a crick in his neck, but that’s the least of his worries, because he  _ fell asleep on Zer0 _ , there’s no way he’s escaping from this with his dignity intact.

At least he wasn’t drooling. This time.

“Oh god, I’m so sorry, I didn’t -” Rhys doesn’t have any real sentences coming out of his mouth as he jerks back, but that’s not unusual around Zer0. He really hopes he hasn’t  _ ruined everything -  _ but that train of thought gets completely derailed when Zer0 puts a gloved hand on his thigh. 

“ _ It is a mark of /  
_ _ Great trust to sleep together _ .”

The winky face this time is brighter than Rhys has ever seen it.

" _That's innuendo_ ,” Zer0 adds helpfully, and Rhys appreciates the explanation because his brain is not processing much of anything right now.

“I - innuendo?” Zer0 pats Rhys’ thigh and shifts so they're straddling the bench, facing Rhys.

“ _ You worry too much. /_  
_ I don’t spend this much time with /  
_ _ People I don’t like_ .”

“People you don’t like,” Rhys repeats, and he can feel the blush start to crawl up his neck.

“ _ I was wondering /_  
_ When you would notice. I bet /  
_ _ Fiona last month._ ”

Great. So Fiona knows about his little crush - but the tiny part of Rhys that is going to die of embarrassment next time he sees her is drowned out by the part yelling at him not to  _ screw this up. _ “So does this mean you win or lose?” Rhys is aiming for casual, but he’s pretty sure he hits  _ desperate _ instead.

Zer0 flashes him a “( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡° )” face.

“ _ Definitely win. /_  
_ To the victor the spoils, and /  
_ _ The next round of drinks._ ”

The blush is here in full force now, because Zer0 is rubbing a gloved thumb over Rhys’ cheek, and he’s pretty sure he has oil smudged there and he’s  _ also  _ pretty sure he was just referred to as “ _ the spoils,”  _ but he can live with that, he can live with all of that if it means having Zer0’s attention on him in this way. He’s not sure how any of this is going to  _ work _ \- can Zer0 even take the helmet off in this atmosphere? Rhys doesn’t know - but he is more than willing to find out.

Maybe he’ll make Fiona something extra-nice, as a thank-you - but then Zer0 slides their other hand up Rhys’ thigh and Rhys hurriedly shelves that idea for  _ later. _

_ Much _ later.

**Author's Note:**

> You can find me on at [ThirtySixSaveFiles](http://thirtysixsavefiles.tumblr.com) on Tumblr!


End file.
